Influence Link Up!

Today I am so excited to be linking up with my fellow Influence Conference attendees! I have been looking forward to this since I was commenting on everyone's posts last year saying "I wish I was there!!" Can't believe it's finally almost time to meet all of these incredible ladies who I feel like I already know in real life!

If we haven't already met yet, hello! I'm Amy. 

I'm a southern California girl who most commonly blogs about Jesus, fashion and running, and who only photographs at the highest quality provided by an iPhone. 

Oh, and I cannot wait to meet you!

Speaking of the conference, let's talk about the 

2 things that I will for sure have packed in my bag:

Well, the first 2 items would definitely be my Bible and my journal, but next on the list is my brand spankin' new Erin Condren life planner.

You may have already read all about my obsession yesterday, but in case you missed it, feel free to see more pics and gushing over here. 

Next would be my Sweet Home SB business cards that I made specifically for this occasion!

These bad boys have been ready to go, right in my purse ever since I got them in the mail. You might call that being prepared, but really it's just because I would forget to pack them. 

Kind of like I forgot to put my own name on my business cards. {Feel free to laugh}

But let's be real, it totally looks like I meant to add the personalized touch of a signature. ;)

Next, let's chat about the 2 things that I am most excited for. 

First and foremost is meeting so many of my closest blog friends. All in one place, at one time. I don't think it can get much better than that!

And second would definitely be the learning. Call me a textbook nerd, but I love learning. When you combine that love of learning with learning about Jesus? Well, I'll say it one more time, I don't think it can get much better than that!

Usually, I'm asking time to slow down. But I'm all for the next 2 weeks flying by. 

Happy Tuesday!

Erin Condren Life Planner

I have always been a paper planner kinda gal. I remember wayy back in elementary school, getting excited over the free agendas that they would give us. And in high school and college, writing down my work/school schedule and color coordinating all of my various events was one of my favorite pastimes. 

Go ahead, call me a planner nerd. I embrace it. 

So imagine my excitement when I saw these amazing Erin Condren life planners. I saw my sweet friend Caitlin's review, and just knew this was a match made in heaven for me. So to the website I went, the order was placed, and a couple weeks later I was ecstatic to receive this at my doorstep:

It's perfect. Everything I could hope for, complete with colorful stickers and inspirational quotes. Because who doesn't need those? 

I could not recommend Erin Condren more. Consider me happily set for 18 months of handwritten planning. It's a happy Monday, indeed!

Keep Walking

On Tuesday mornings, I drive to my good friend Tabitha's house for our Stuck Bible study. Seeing as I've been driving to her house for quite some time now, and seem to find myself there multiple times a week these days, I've got it down pat. I could probably drive there with my eyes closed, and I know the parking sitch pretty well. 

Tuesday mornings at 6:30AM seem to be a pretty difficult time to find parking. Seeing as most people are still in bed, it would make sense that their cars are still lining the streets. I usually can't find parking as close as I typically do, but welcome the added exercise of a briskly paced walk (since I'm usually running late). 

This past Tuesday, I was pleasantly surprised to find a pretty good spot. I had a celebratory dance in my mind as I rocked the shiz out of that parallel parking job. I grabbed my purse, my breakfast, my Bible and my study, and heading towards Tab's apartment complex. 

As I walked, I passed one closer spot. "Wow! Another good one!" I thought to myself. I kept walking only to find another, even closer spot. It was right about then that I realized the message that God was showing me. And no, it had nothing to do with parking. 

I based my decision on sight and knowledge, not on faith. I saw the spot in front of me, and it seemed like a good one. I knew from prior weeks that it was much better than my usual Tuesday, 6:30AM parking spot. So I took it, deciding it was good enough for me. And even though I couldn't see ahead of me, I assumed this was my best option. 

How often do I do that in real life? How often do I base my daily decisions on what I see, and what I know? How often do I miss out on the better things that God has for me, because I'm subconsciously believing He is limited by what I see. 

We are called to walk by faith, right? 

For we live by believing and not by seeing. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

It was a simple, yet profound lesson. As someone who doesn't often hear explicitly from God, I was hearing Him loud and clear. Did it matter that I was walking a few extra feet? No. But does it matter when the decisions I'm making aren't where to park, but things that seriously affect my life? You bet. 

From now on, I'm going to try and consciously walk by faith instead of sight. Because the fact of the matter is, I couldn't even possibly dream up the future that God has for me. So why would I limit my decisions based on what I see now, when He sees everything. He sees all the possible options, and because He's a good and loving Father, He wants to give me the best one. 

And guess what? He wants to give you the best one, too. 

Financial analyst by day

So I seem to have developed myself an "About Me" slogan. You can find it on Facebook, or Twitter, or on this here blog.  

"Financial analyst by day, blogger by night. And Jesus freak 24/7." 
Sums me up pretty darn well.  

I've blogged a little bit here and there about my job, but mainly just about how it found me. I thought today I'd go into a little more detail on what exactly this "financial analyst" side of me does. 9 hours a day. 4-5 days a week. 

(If you're confused on that schedule, check out this post)

Growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher. Ever since elementary school, all the way up through the middle of college, that was the plan. In elementary school, I wanted to teach elementary school. In middle school, I wanted to teach middle school English. And in high school, I wanted to teach high school math. 

English was always my thing. I wrote poems, stories, scripts, journals, everything. My mom had been a math major (at UCSB, too!), and for that reason, she always kept me working on my math skills. Even as I was glued to the Diary of Anne Frank in middle school and getting a deficiency notice in pre-algebra (yupp, that happened), she pushed me in math. 

And thank goodness she did, because when it clicked, it clicked. I'm a stubborn wanna-be perfectionist, and when they opened up the honors algebra II/trigonometry class to anyone who wanted to try it, I jumped on board. Even when my counselors advised against it, I pushed through. And lo' and behold, I fell in love with math. Took 2 years of calculus before graduating high school, and bam. My dreams of becoming an English teacher turned into dreams of becoming a math teacher. 

Fast forward to the middle of college when my path changed. To keep this post from becoming an essay (already well on its way), I'll skip the minor details, and just say that I developed an interest in business. Corporate America was flirting with me, and I was definitely interested. 

And as you probably know, I've been in Corporate America ever since graduating in March of 2011. Here I am, on job #2, and still loving it. Will I be here forever? No clue. I'll be here for as long as God wants it.

So what does a financial analyst do? Well, I would imagine that we are all slightly different. Depending on the company, and depending on your particular focus. I work for a large engineering company. There are different branches of finance within our company, and my particular team is called the Financial Planning & Analysis team, or FP&A.

Our team's job is to analyze and keep track of the financial metrics for our division of the company. What are financial metrics? Bookings, sales, profit and cash. My focus is bookings, which I find super interesting because it's all of the future business that we are hoping to bring in. 

Being in a large, public, corporate company, we are given goals for the amount of dollars we must bring in with these various metrics each year. It is my job to help make sure that we meet those goals, and I am extremely privileged to work on a team with incredibly intelligent and successful men and women that make that possible.  

So now that you have an idea of what I do, I thought I would see if you have any questions! Could be about work, could be about getting a job after college, could be about what to do in college to prepare yourself for the workplace. I know a lot of you guys are either in college, or young professionals like meee. So if you have any questions, feel free to throw em' out there. 

Happy Humpday!
 

Are YOU on Facebook?

Cause Sweet Home SB is!

 

If Facebook is your way of staying connected, you can now find this little ol' blog over in your neck of the woods! My hope is that this page would become more than just a place to find links to blog posts, but a place for us to connect, too!

I'd love to use this to ask you guys questions, get your feedback, find out more about YOU! And ideally, it'd be awesome if you guys can connect with each other, too. 

So if you are a FB pro, you know where to find me :)

 

A Beautiful, Laborless, Santa Barbara Day

I hope you had a wonderful and laborless Labor Day! I spent mine on a boat, sailing around gorgeous Santa Barbara with some of my favorite people. 

Not too shabby, not too shabby at all. 

Can you guess which of the above pics were taken with Madeleine's super cool and professional camera, and which were taken with my iPhone? 

Yeah, I couldn't tell the difference either. 

(Remind me to put "Invest in a big girl camera" on the 2014 Bucket List)

I spent the day staring at my beautiful home, and wondering how on earth I got lucky enough to live here. 

I also spent it screeching with joy at every animal that we saw. 

Thank you, God, for making this world such a beautiful and incredible place to be.